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All patients who have surgery have some degree of bleeding in the mediastinum in the immediate postoperative period, called Shed Mediastinal Blood (SMB). Usually this is a microvascular oozing rather than dramatic surgical bleeding. SMB must be cleared by chest tubes placed to evacuate it until the bleeding stops, usually in the first 12 hours after surgery.1 Any impairment in the evacuation of SMB by chest tubes can result in retained blood around the heart.2 Numerous studies have documented that SMB is high in inflammatory mediators, suggesting that when the blood sits in this space, neutrophils are attracted and oxidative stress ensues.3 One biomarker that has been documented acutely in the postoperative

The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery published a recent manuscript entitled “Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials assessing safety and efficacy of posterior pericardial drainage in patients undergoing heart surgery”. Nineteen randomized controlled trials enrolled 3,425 patients who were analyzed to determine if efforts to reduce retained blood around the heart after heart surgery might reduce postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF), retained blood syndrome (pericardial effusions, tamponade, pericardial effusions), hospital resource utilization, and death.1 The focus was the addition of the surgical technique known as “posterior pericardiotomy,” where the surgeon creates a long incision in the posterior pericardium to drain any retained blood into the pleural space, thereby shunting

Changes in how US hospitals and doctors are reimbursed are happening fast. Hospitals now have many opportunities to improve quality and achieve positive financial results in bundling programs, but “Where to start?” is a common question. Bundled payment sets a single spending target for all applicable health care services provided during a clinical episode of care over a specified time period. The goal of these changes is to create financial incentives that encourage providers to coordinate care across treatment settings, reduce unnecessary services, and expand initiatives that can help patients recover quickly. Post-acute care is a major component of total per-episode spending and will be the focus of many successful

All patients having heart surgery are required to have drainage catheters to remove shed blood from around the heart and lungs in the early hours of recovery following surgery. Evidence has shown that these drainage catheters have a high failure rate due to clogging. Chest tube clogging when a patient is still bleeding can lead to Retained Blood Syndrome (RBS). Retained blood can be demonstrated in up to 20% of patients after heart surgery. Patients with retained blood have far greater hospital acquired infections (HAI) after cardiac surgery. • Patients with interventions for retained blood had a four-times increase in overall infection rate when compared to patients without interventions for

The world of heart surgery is fast paced for all involved. Elective patients are scheduled, emergent cases are added on, and both are sometimes bumped for emergency cases that present at the last moment and need immediate surgery. This makes it difficult to staff operating rooms and CVICUs in a manner that allows maximum efficiency of case throughput. Routine cases suffer the most delays when bottlenecks develop in the ICU. A bottleneck occurs when elective cases have to be delayed or rescheduled due to a lack of available beds in the CVICU. When this happens, teams go idle in the operating room and post ICU recovery wards, and patients and their families

ClearFlow’s PleuraFlow® Active Clearance Technology® and many of its features are protected by a comprehensive family of both US and foreign patents and patent applications in major markets throughout the world, including Canada, Australia and the European Community. In the United States, PleuraFlow® products are protected by US Patent Nos. 7,854,728, 7,951,243, 8,246,752, 8,048,233, 8,388,759, 8,702,662 and 8,951,355. The PleuraFlow® product is the first device of its kind to effectively and reproducibly clear obstructing material from chest tubes without compromising the sterile field, and thus patient recovery. It is the only FDA 510(k) cleared device of its kind for this indication. ClearFlow’s patent portfolio has been tailored not only to protect this product, but also to provide protection around this new market segment thus presenting a barrier to entry for competing products.